Samsung Electronics announced yesterday that it has signed software deals with both Microsoft and Intel as the company, which is the second biggest maker of cell phones in the entire world, begins to strengthen its mobile software push.

The New York City subway switched on its first cell phone antennas yesterday, with subscribers to AT&T and T-Mobile now able to surf the internet and make calls from underground corridors and platforms at up to six stations in Manhattan’s Chelsea section.

It’s a scenario that has been played out in numerous science fiction novels, TV series and movies – the man from the past who arrives in a future world where technology has moved on so far that it is terrifyingly incomprehensible to him.

Dish Network Corp, which is the second biggest provider of satellite TV in the whole of the United States, is contemplating purchasing or partnering with a wireless carrier such as Clearwire Corp or Sprint Nexel Corp, says the firm’s chief executive officer, Joseph Clayton.

Anyone riding the subway in Washington DC in the United States who believes that the service for their new or old cell phone has improved of late is not imagining things, according to transit officials.